Psychopath tricks cops, flees under cover of darkness

Superintendent of Police Prashanth Kumar Thakur said three constables of Bangalore South Central Armed Reserve Police were bringing Reddy to Bellary by bus. The bus driver, while driving the bus, suddenly applied brakes near Rampura, causing injury to a constable who lost some teeth. He was rushed to a hospital on arrival at Bellary. The other two constables then brought Reddy to Police Welfare Centre.

Late in the night, Reddy requested the two constables to take away the chains tied around his ankle since he wanted to visit the toilet. He suggested thatthey tie up his hands instead. When the constables were removing the chains and trying up his hands, he pushed them hard and escaped under the cover of darkness.

Reddy has been dubbed a Psychopath for his alleged tendency towards necrophilia (sexual intercourse with corpses) after murder. Reddy was earlier working in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on the Kashmir border. There he raped the daughter of his battalion commandant, before fleeing to his native Basappa Malige Village in Chitradurga. He got into the District Armed Reserve as a constable. He allegedly raped and murdered Rupa, a PUC student in Chitradurga on December 6, 1996.

From Chitradurga he fled to Bangalore. The city was rocked with a series of murders between December 1996 and June 1997. He was caught while attempting to steal a woman’s undergarments at Mico Layout in June. Somehow, on the pretext of handing over stolen property, he gave the Mico Layout police station police, where he was kept, the slip.

He was later arrested byChitradurga police while trying to snatch a gold chain from Shailaja, a teacher. Police connected him with the Rupa murder, but he misled them by claiming that he had committed the crime along with eight other youths. Police arrested all the nine and they were sent to Bellary Central jail in July 1997. One day, on being granted permission to visit the toilet, Reddy jumped the prison wall and ran away.

Reddy then allegedly committed several murders in Bangalore, Mysore, Mumbai, Vadodara and Ahmedabad. His last crime was the murder of Jayashree, a widow in Bangalore on February 28, 1998 in Dasarahalli under Peenya police limits.

He was caught by the neighbours of another intended victim soon and since then had been lodged in Central jail, Bangalore.

Meanwhile, SP Thakur said he has recommended the suspension of constables Venkataramaiah, Venkatesh and Prashanth Kumar who escorted Reddy to Bellary.